Miscellaneous Links (18 June 2009)

Astronomy & Science:
SNR 0104: An Unusual Suspect (A supernova remnant (a star that blew up) with an unusual shape.)

Stars at the Galactic Center (The center of the Milky Way galaxy, as seen in infrared (heat) light.)

Streaming Dark Nebulas near B44

M13: A Great Globular Cluster of Stars (One of the better pictures I've seen of M13.)

NGC 6240: Merging Galaxies

Discovery Magazine: Holes of Silence (Sonic black holes. Cool!)

Science @ NASA: Mystery of the Missing Sunspots, Solved?

Climate change is already having an impact in the Midwest and across the US (The good news: a longer growing season (by one week) for crops. The bad news: temperature and humidity increases, more winter and spring rain, less rain in the summer (i.e., more droughts), more flooding, lower water levels in the Great Lakes, reduced air quality, more insect-borne diseases, pollen and fungi. But don't worry: global warming is just a hoax, doncha know?)


Comics:
Dilbert ("Too crazy too fast.")

One Big Happy ("Big deal! I know how to say, 'What's the matter with you? You're getting on my nerves," in Italian.")

One Big Happy (Grandma vs. Grandpa.)

One Big Happy (That's right, kids! All us daddies eat breakfast in our underwear. Don't puke while you watch! ;) )

Working Daze (I had a supervisor like this, a guy who kept calling me "Jim." (Not my name.) I could never get him to remember my real name, but when he asked for "Jim" I knew he was asking for me. :P )

Working Daze (Survivor's remorse.)


Science Fiction:
io9: The Composers That Make Space Adventures Epic (Can't disagree with a single one.)

ListVerse: Top 10 Survival Tips For People In Horror Flicks (#11: Teenagers should never have sex! ;) )

SciFi Scanner: Mary Robinette Kowal - Fantasy's Male Warriors Kick Butt (While Baring Butt)

SF Signal: It's Time For Indy To Hang Up His Hat, For Good

SF Signal: Do Literary Awards Affect Your Reading Choices?

The Architects' Journal: The architecture of Star Wars (pt I) (See also part II.)


The Truly Miscellaneous:
APOD: Pyrenees Paraselene (Every now and then, APOD publishes photos that have little to do with Astronomy. This beautiful picture looks down at the Pyrenees mountains, which separate Spain from France, from a local observatory.)

BWG: Asinine Assertion

Google Fusion Tables

IZ Reloaded: Laptop Uses AA Batteries

Kottke.org: 50 Films You Can Wait to See After You're Dead (I've seen three, "Son of the Mask" and "Catwoman," only because they were on TV, and "Rocky V," which was surprisingly good and shouldn't be on this list.)

The Mad Logophile: Foreign Words & Phrases (This diary over at Daily Kos examines the meanings of several hundred foreign words and phrases, including twenty-three from the Middle East, in Arabic, Persian and Turkish.)

WTF Is It Now?!?: Brett Favre, missing the spotlight, to torture country again

Yet Another Web Site: Are audiophiles really this stupid?

Yet Another Web Site: A really stupid article